In Which I Eat Fresh Sea Food, Talk To Many People and See Some Humongeous Tortoises

October 21^st: Wednesday

I am awoken at 4:30 by a Muslim crier who sounds like he is right outside my window, which he probably is. I get up around 5:30 and dress. I leave my hostel to go explore the city before breakfast. I have to rouse the owner, to let me out of the locked door. The city is strangely empty and quite compared to when I went to bed last night. Soon however it begins to fill with people beginning their days. The daladalas start, almost no shops are open but people wander about in a focused manner. Its hot, even now I am sweating.

I get back around at 7:00 and after pounding on the door for several minutes I manage to wake the owner. I pack all my thinks. All my cloths smell of sweat. I only brought three shirts and I am saving the last for later today. I dress in my swim trunks and then pull on my shots over them. Breakfast is toast, fruit and egg. I check-out and take a wandering path over to the big tree, a massive tree that sits on the edge of the town and across the street from a beach that is the launching grounds for many of the boats. There I meet Kazim; another friend of Daniel that said hooked me up with the day before. Kazim is a medium height, well built African, dressed in a bright yellow brazil jersey and a pair of swim trunks. He greets me with a big smile and soon finds me a pair of fins and a mask and we set out for prison island which is a 35 minute boat ride away.

As we traverse the bright blue ocean I talk to Kazim. We talk about a lot of things. I learn that he night fishes at Pemba, the island north of Zanzibar, for a fish like the barracuda that is longer than a man. He is not yet thirty and has been a fisherman/guide his whole life. He ask me if I have a boyfriend. I ask him if he means girlfriend. He says yes but continues to get the word wrong throughout our conversation. He himself is single because as he tells me “the problem is always the women on Zanzibar.” I tell him it’s not just on Zanzibar.

We arrive at prison island where we spend about a half hour seeing some ruins and feeding the giant tortoises on the island. There are over 100 of the monsters. The largest’s shell must have been 5ft by 3ft. they are huge massive creatures. Their size and weight are staggering.

After this I spend several minutes watching Kazim take apart his engine and clean the spark plugs. Kazim apologizes and tells me not to worry. We get under way soon enough and travel out to the reef. I put on my fins and mask and jump in. it takes a few minutes to get used to breathing through the mask. The reef is colorful and full of fish. Perhaps not the best snorkeling reef ever. The sun is gone, the water isn’t very clear, and the reef is obviously damaged by anchors but it is still beautiful. After snorkeling for about an hour I retire to the boat. With the sun gone I am cold and the mask is giving me a headache. We go back to Stone Town.

We arrive around noon and I am sorry to say goodbye to Kazim. I wander down the waterfront checking out the menus for the restaurants. One, the Archipelago, looks promising. I mount the stairs to the second story restaurant where I change into my last clean shirt and some not very clean shorts. I sit at a table that overlooks the ocean. The sun is out again. Palm trees and white sand lead down to blue water. I order the baby squid salad with tomatoes and green peppers and the BBQ swordfish with avocados. Amazing. The squid salad is nearly the entire squids, just the insides and eyes, beak removed. I leave and wander down through the touristy part of town. I buy some postcards. I scoff at cheesy t-shirts that cost $28. I stop by a group of guys playing an interesting game. They tell me it is called Kerem or something and explain the rules to me. I discovered a fun question to ask. I ask whether Zanzibar is a different country than Tanzania. The responses are remarkably different. Yesterday a shop owner told me passionately that Zanzibar is a different country and that the Tanzanian president didn’t want the Zanzibar people because they were Muslims. He also told me that every single person on Zanzibar was Islamic. My Kerem playing friends tell me they are from the main land and that people who say that Zanzibar and Tanzania are different countries are fools.

I wander around Stone Town, buying some gifts for Unity’s Family and a few other things. I check out the old dispensary, whatever that is, and find a public building with art work done by local artists on the second floor. The building is a really cool design. I use their very western bathrooms and am delighted to find a toilet. After nearly an hour of searching I finally find the Anglican Cathedral which is built on the site of the old slave market and whose alter is set on the same spot as the whipping post. I decline a guide to the disgust of the men at the gate. I am running low on money. I look at the slave chambers and explore the church. It really is beautiful. As I am leaving one of the guides stops me and quizzes me on the history of the church. I am able to answer most of his questions since I did some research before I came here.

Then I wander down to the southern part of the city. I cross over form historic Stone Town to the modern Zanzibar City. I cross into a park where there are several football games going on. I sit down to watch. A young man soon comes and sits down and we start to chat about sports and Zanzibar. After an hour I leave. I wander up to the waterfront where I stop at an Italian restaurant and order a beer and watch the sun set. I couple of elderly ladies who I rode the ferry here with come up and ask me if they can join me at my table. I say sure. They are both from Norway and have traveled all over the world together. We have an interesting conversation.

After the sun sets I excuse myself. I am going to go eat at the food stalls which serve fresh daily caught seafood. The food stalls are located in the middle of the Forodhani Gardens. I buy a plate full of fresh fish, shark, prawns, calamari, and piece of garlic Nan.

As the cook puts my order on the grill to heat it up I stay and chat with the assistant, a young guy with a quirky sense of humor. I eat looking out at the ocean and watching the people wander around the food stall. While there are a lot of tourists there are even more locals. A man sits down near me and try to sell me a cd of African music. He is really drunk and keeps falling asleep, waking every few minutes to mumbles about his cd and hum the tune of one of the songs. He is sitting on the edge of the stone wall of the harbor and I am mildly hoping that he falls asleep and topples into the water. No such luck. I go to find the bathroom and discover that it costs 300 Tsh. Ok, this is a strange country. This is a legit guy asking for money too. He has a uniform, and key, and they price is written on the wall of the toilet.

After exiting the most expensive bathroom I have ever visited I pull out my remaining Cuban cigar. I rim the edge and then discover I can’t find my matches. Great. I go back to my friend at the food stall and he helps me light it. I let him have a puff and he chokes and starts coughing. A bit stronger than a cigarette I guess. I smoke the cigar as I walk towards the ferry. I am taking the night ferry back to Dar. I walk along the waters edge. Look out at the big black ocean. Drop some ash on my foot. I finish the cigar and through it into the water.

I spend several minutes at the ferry trying to get someone to stamp my passport to prove I was here. I finally find a man who can. I board the ferry and am ushered into the upper deck. Got tipped of here. I could have paid less and gone below deck where they leave the lights on and watch Jackie Chan movies. I strike up a conversation with a daladala driver named Muhammad. I then read and finally fall asleep near midnight. At some pointing the night I need to go to the bathroom. We apparently are on the ocean since the boat is rocking back and forth. I stumble towards the bathroom. As I try to keep my balance and aim I am suddenly suspicious of this seemingly innocent water on the bathroom floor. I finally manage to make my way back to the upper deck. I am now feeling decidedly sick. I flop down on my couch I scored for my self. The sickening motion of the boat soon turns to a pleasant lulling and I fall asleep.